• upselling

    Best Buy Really Does Not Want To Let You Buy The Advertised Special

    Reader John writes in with a story about "upselling" at Best Buy. He saw a TomTom GPS unit for $99.99 on sale at Best Buy, so he headed over to the store to pick one up. What follows is his account of how much trouble it was to actually buy the item. We think we counted 9 times that John had to tell various and sundry Best Buy employees that, yes, he was sure that he didn't want to buy a slightly more expensive model of the same device. More »

    3:17 PM on Mon Nov 24 2008
    By Meg Marco
    32,276 views, 214 comments

    Most discussed blkhrt1: Funny thing about the whole: "No act or practice should be engaged in by an advertiser to discourage the purchase of more »

  • scams

    NWV Direct Caught Pulling Bait And Switch, Tries To Backpedal

    Joshua caught New World Video Direct trying to pull a bait and switch on him with a recent order, so he canceled it and gave them a bad review on resellerratings.com. They contacted him to ask if he'd remove the rating. Joshua wrote back to decline, but he reminded them that it's actually pretty simple to develop a decent reputation as retailer: "If you want to have anyone trust you as a business you have to only list items you plan to sell for the price you plan to sell them at." More »

    8:38 AM on Mon Oct 13 2008
    By Chris Walters
    46,703 views, 63 comments

    Most discussed jchabotte: Never heard of NWV.. all my photog gear, i get from B&H, never had any problems, customer service at the more »

  • bally

    Bally Total Fitness Scams College Student By Swapping Contracts

    Chanda signed up for a month-to-month membership at a Bally Total Fitness in Montclair, California, but when things went wrong—as they frequently do with this company—Chanda found himself signed up for a 3-year agreement. Their proof? An unsigned contract that doesn't look like the one he was given. More »

    5:42 PM on Tue Sep 16 2008
    By Chris Walters
    17,393 views, 44 comments

    Most discussed Meltdown: I always had 1 year contracts... I never heard of a gym, besides Bally, that offers 36 months contracts. more »

  • verizon

    Verizon: 'You've Earned A New Phone' (Just Not From Us)

    Is this Verizon promotional email being over-enthusiastic with its subject line, or is it actually misleading? A phrase like "you've earned a new ___" doesn't usually get followed up with, "Just pay us anywhere between $100-$200 for it," unless it comes from a scam vacation offer. Or Verizon. As Bryan notes in his email to us, "The subject line must mean something like when you tell Verizon, 'You've earned my suspicion and contempt.'" More »

    9:52 AM on Tue Aug 26 2008
    By Chris Walters
    7,073 views, 28 comments

    Latest by Camon: Weird. I got this same email and DID get a free Blackberry Curve 8330. TBH Ive never had an issue more »

  • charter cable

    You Won A 65-inch TV From Charter Cable! Here Is Your 19-inch TV!

    The News Courier reports Charter Cable ran an online contest asking kids to submit stories about why their dad was the "World's Greatest Dad," and the winner was supposed to get a 65-inch TV...instead, a 19-inch one showed up on his doorstep. Is this any way to treat The World's Greatest Dad?

    UPDATE: Charter has responded to this post and says they're working with the family to get them a better prize.

    UPDATE: Charter Gives Family 2 TVs After Contest Snafu More »

    6:06 PM on Tue Jul 8 2008
    By Ben Popken
    22,830 views, 94 comments

    Latest by glennski: I called this one 2 weeks ago. You know you've been reading consumerist too avidly when you can cut right more »

  • Value City Furniture

    This Furniture Store Uses Creative Math

    Wow, look at this nice five-piece bedroom set. Only $599! Not bad, especially when the description says it's normally $1800. Five different pieces—that would fill a bedroom with a lot of cheap class! Now let's put the fine print filter on it:

    Five-piece set includes headboard, footboard, wood rails/slats, dresser and mirror.

    That's right, the bed is actually three pieces. That nightstand and other dresser must have wandered onto the set accidentally. More »

    5:06 PM on Tue Jul 1 2008
    By Chris Walters
    14,236 views, 54 comments

    Latest by ELC: @Trust me, I'm a doctor: Not true, see my post below about the quality of what we got. We shopped more »

  • scam artists

    TicketsMyWay: Sell Tickets You Don't Have, Keep Money, Threaten Customers, Profit!

    A reader sent in the following tip about a Vegas-based ticket broker:

    There is a company by the name of Ticketsmyway.com (Event Tickets LLC) that has the scam of the century running. Their operations run like this.
    • Advertise tickets slightly cheaper than Stubhub and other sites.
    • Consumers place an order online for tickets often months in advance
    • Credit cards are charged full amount immediately
    • Customers are told to check status of order online
    • Orders always show as "processing"
    • As date of event gets closer, customer starts calling to find out Status of shipping
    • 1-2 days before event, customer are told tickets are "no longer available"
    • Phone rep says a refund can only be requested online
    • Terms of Use online say any refund request is considered a "cancellation" and customer is charged 45% of the purchase price

    Even though company cannot produce tickets, customers lose 45% of their entire purchase price.

    More »

    10:32 AM on Wed Jun 25 2008
    By Chris Walters
    19,264 views, 81 comments

  • pay up

    Doctor Holds Patient Hostage Until She Pays Her Bill

    A doctor named John Drew Laurusonis and two of his assistants in Georgia have been accused of locking a woman in an examination room "when concerns arose about her ability to pay the bill." The three were indicted last week on charges of false imprisonment for the October 4th, 2007 incident.

    For several hours, the staff refused to allow her to leave, locking her in for periods of time, [her attorney Joseph] Fried said. They had her log into her bank records from a computer while she was there, he said. "They said, 'Don't you have anyone who loves you who can come and help you? Because you're not leaving until this bill is paid,' " Fried said. "They made her feel like she was a criminal. She was made to feel like she couldn't leave without something bad to happen to her."

    More »

    12:11 PM on Tue Jun 24 2008
    By Chris Walters
    20,398 views, 157 comments

    Latest by janaram: To Jaggurnaut and all other people that is concerned with this maybe you should do a little research and you more »

  • bait and switch

    Dell Reduces Instant Discount By $200 Somewhere Between Shopping Cart And Order Confirmation

    Before we get to the typical bad-company shenanigans—in this case, Dell's $599 discount mysteriously shrank to $400 between when he placed it in his shopping cart and when he reached the confirmation screen—we want to share this bit of ridiculousness. Dell's CSR Vanessa gives us the scoop on Dell's sophisticated order fulfillment system:

    Jack: Can you look at sales history today and verify whether you sold this system at $599 off today? This was to be my third dell purchase, now I will not purchase again!
    ATG Vanessa: There isn't a cart history unfortunately.
    Jack: Sales history! Actual people who purchased this system today!
    ATG Vanessa: We don't keep record of that.
    Jack: You're telling me dell does not know what it has sold today?
    ATG Vanessa: Remember this is done online and there's some confidential information we usually erase to protect customers.
    Jack: Like what computers you have to build?
    ATG Vanessa: So no, there isn't a record where you can see how much have been sold.
    Jack: How do you know what you have to ship?
    ATG Vanessa: It depends on what we have available at the moment.

    More »

    1:27 PM on Fri May 30 2008
    By Chris Walters
    9,206 views, 53 comments

    Latest by SadhikaBenkar: I managed to purchase a Dell the other day during their promotion for $699 off of select XPS systems. Yesterday more »